When applying for a PhD program, it was very helpful reading posts that were meant to guide students throughout the process, advice that wasn’t from a school website, advice that was more personal. Being a PhD student for a year now, I think I am ready to share my applying to grad schools experience. What follows is designated for students applying to grad school (especially in the United States). Here are a few standard questions I had during the application season: Where to apply? Am I good enough to apply to a certain school? How many schools should I apply to? After getting admitted somewhere, how do I pick? What if I do not get in anywhere? Here I would like to try and answer those questions based on my experience.

The most difficult process was deciding where to apply for grad school, it is not easy to choose when there are so many options! Here are a few things to keep in mind: location, professors in the department, details of the particular program, support for graduate students, culture within the department. Location is essential! Please pay attention to that since after all it will be a place you will spend an average of five years of your life, so make sure you think you will enjoy living there. You want to take a look at the people in the department, take a look at their research and see if there is anyone that could be a potential advisor, even consider contacting them. If you are indecisive, like I was, and you do not know what research you want to pursue yet, that is totally fine. In that case you may want to choose a big enough department that has a variety of research areas. Another very important factor to keep in mind is the requirements of the program as specifications vary from school to school. Take a moment to research the details of what the program requires from you in order to be successful. Next, you want to take a look at the support they provide, compare the stipend they offer to the living cost of the area where the school is located; it is not fun struggling financially during grad school. Finally, I would highly recommend you research or talk to current graduate students and get an idea how things work within the department, work-life balance, diversity, interactions in the department, etc. The last one you can leave for later, after you get admitted to a school and are trying to make a final decision on where to go to.

Are you good enough for a school? The short answer is: yes. That is a very tricky question and one that I had asked myself a lot. Each one of us is unique and yes you are good enough for any school if you’re willing to put in the work. I believed that too, however, it wasn’t enough of an answer. In my attempt to give a rough estimate if I was “good enough” for a program, I ended up taking a look at the profiles of the current PhD students in the program and read their CVs. That gave me an idea about my standing, however, that can be a bit misleading. In my case, I ended up getting into programs that I wasn’t confident in myself and didn’t get into ones that I thought were safer options. So, do not let that discourage you, it is sometimes a matter of luck on where you get in to. You have a dream school? Please apply!

How many schools should you apply to? Well, personally I applied to 11 schools and I would say 5-15 is a good range. I know it is not easy to apply to many schools but if you can afford the application fees apply to as many as you can that you think you would be happy enough to go there. Make sure you have a variety of schools from competitive ones to less competitive ones so you have better chances. Sometimes even if you are an amazing applicant, it can be the case that that particular school you wanted to go got too many applications and they had very few spots and they may go with some other amazing applicants. So you never know what may happen. I know it sounds stressful but hang in there. So my overall advice about this: apply to as many schools as you can afford, this will open more doors for you!

This brings us to the next step: deciding where to go! The final choice is very personal, you will have to answer the question of where you want to go. Now that your choices are narrowed a bit, this is your time to take an extensive look at the location, cost of living, people in the department and details of the program. Finally, if everywhere you got in looks great then you may compare numbers: see how cost of living versus stipend compare, again this is an about five years commitment. While in this topic, I would like to also add that the waiting time can be stressful, it was probably my least favorite part of this whole process. My advice: try to not think about the results until they’re out, do something else, focus on your classes, do not keep refreshing your emails to see if any results are out yet.

What if I do not get in anywhere? It is the unfortunate truth that there is a chance you may not get in anywhere or anywhere you like. I know very talented and intelligent candidates that didn’t get in any schools the first round. That’s okay, there is another round you can try the next academic year. As I said above, this is a bit a matter of luck, there is dependence on various factors: how many people applied to the same program versus how many spots there are left, who reviewed you application and how good their coffee was that day etc. Don’t let that discourage you, if you made the decision of applying to PhD programs, then you are ready to get into one and if you didn’t that doesn’t say anything about you. With that being said, yes there is a chance of not getting anywhere or anywhere you like, be prepared, have a plan B.